Former Toyota Executive Leads Supplier into New Era
KARIYA, Japan (PRWEB) August 12, 2015 -- In the world of global auto suppliers, Toyota affiliated brake manufacturer ADVICS Co., Ltd. is a relative newcomer. Despite being the “go to” brake company for the world's biggest auto manufacturer, ADVICS is less than 15 years old and only began running its first factory in its home country in 2010. But car stopping technology has come a long way from clunky, conventional drum brakes. Today, high-tech braking is an indispensable element in autonomous driving, hybrid energy regeneration and sophisticated auto-stop and auto-steer safety systems.
Toyota Motor Corp. sees braking as so critical to its next generation vehicles, that it has sent one of its highest profile executives to run ADVICS. It marks the first time Toyota has installed a leader at the brake maker, though it routinely does so at other suppliers in its vast stable of affiliates.
ADVICS' new chief is Satoshi Ogiso, 54, a former Toyota global product planning guru and longtime development leader for its Prius family of hybrid vehicles. He took the wheel June 24th. Ogiso's mission: Guide ADVICS into the new era by integrating old school mechanical braking technology with the new high tech digital controls that run everything from hybrid battery recharging and pre-crash emergency stopping to four wheel drive traction features and adaptive cruise control.
"I am very strong at complicated vehicle system development management," Ogiso said in a July 13 interview at ADVICS' global headquarters just outside Nagoya. "Toyota wants ADVICS to make good proposals to expand these systems."
Balancing growth
Demand for advanced braking systems will soar as safety regulations and assessments increasingly require advanced driver assistance systems, such as pre-crash emergency braking, he said. The former Toyota managing officer also will oversee the expansion of ADVICS with a technical center opening this month in Kariya, Japan and its first factory in Mexico scheduled to start production in March. That plant, in Lagos de Moreno in the state of Jalisco, initially will employ 130 workers and manufacture drum brakes.
ADVICS' global sales grew 3.1 percent to ¥527.3 billion ($4.41 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 31. Toyota accounted for about 70 percent of that business, with Nissan, Daihatsu, Mitsubishi, Isuzu and Suzuki fleshing out the next tier of customers. Toyota owns a 9 percent stake in ADVICS.
ADVICS is growing thanks to booming sales to Toyota. But it is also wary of growing too fast. Ogiso keenly remembers Toyota's global unintended acceleration crisis and the quality problems that the carmaker attributed to unbridled expansion.
Young company
ADVICS was founded in 2001 as a joint venture of Toyota and three brake related suppliers: Aisin Seiki Co., Denso Corp. and Sumitomo Electric Industries. Today, Aisin holds a 55 percent stake, while Denso and Sumitomo Electric have 18 percent each. The company is not listed on a public stock exchange.
In 2001, it had only a sales and engineering staff. Manufacturing was outsourced to its shareholder companies. ADVICS acquired its first domestic factory in 2010 after buying its Kariya brake plant from Aisin Seiki.
Today, ADVICS has 6,790 employees worldwide and factories around the globe, including plants in Ohio, Georgia and Indiana. ADVICS makes the regenerative brakes for every Toyota hybrid. Those brakes convert the kinetic energy of braking into electricity that recharges the onboard battery. A top goal here is to improve the efficiency of that regeneration, Ogiso said. Cutting costs is another priority, Ogiso added.
Using regenerative braking contributes to the hybrid premium that automakers charge for gasoline electric vehicles. It can boost the cost of a conventional braking layout by up to 30 percent.
Software surge
In traditional braking, ADVICS is looking at several advances. It aims to reduce squeal noise, shorten stopping distance, minimize friction during coasting and eliminate weight. But it is in the new fields of safety and comfort where rapid gains are expected. For example, ADVICS supplied the brakes and controllers for two new pre-crash auto-stop systems rolled out by Toyota, its so called Toyota Safety Sense packages.
The shift puts a premium on hiring software engineers. Some 200 of ADVICS’ 1,200 engineers are already software specialists, and most new hiring will be for such positions. About 500 engineers of all stripes will move into the technical center when it opens this month. "Such driver assist systems are expanding step by step. The requirements are becoming stricter," Ogiso said. "We need to improve the computer system speed and brake reaction speed."
ADVICS designs and manufactures brake systems and components for most of the major automakers. Their systems are used in many of the top selling vehicles in North America. ADVICS North America, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of ADVICS Co. LTD, is dedicated to continuously improving the engineering and performance of every product they sell.
Wendy Kuhn, GC Marketing Group, +1 (480) 440-1011, [email protected]
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